With no one visible behind him on the short finishing stretch of pavement, Albert had enough time to celebrate with a quick dismount and remount just before crossing the line.

Francis Mourey (FDJ.fr) finished in second place in a sprint finish over Philipp Walsleben (BKCP-Powerplus), 32 seconds behind Albert. Also in the chase group on the final stretch was World Champion Sven Nys (Crelan-KDL), who after managing a good start, dropped back in the field with several time-consuming errors. Nys recomposed himself and made his way into the chase group but did not have enough in the end to challenge the sprint, finishing fourth just ahead of Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games).

Wietse Bosmans was having an excellent ride until a crash into the fencing took him out of the race and off to the nearest hospital on a stretcher. Cyclocross.info later reported that he was in stable condition, but the fear of a concussion kept him at the hospital.

In the Elite Women’s race, Katie Compton (Trek Cyclocross Collective), in her characteristic style, rode away from the rest of the field early, maintaining her lead for the victory.

Compton separated herself from the field near the end of the first lap and continued to increase her lead over the course of the race. The battle for second place formed behind her, between Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) and Nkki Harris (Young Telenet-Fidea).

Cant and Harris were very close through most of the race, with Cant maintaining a slight lead to finish second, 1:09 behind Compton. Harris finished third 1:23 behind the leader.

Free digital issue:

Cyclocross MagazineAbout Us

Cyclocross Magazine is a print and digital magazine and website for the cyclocross community by cyclocross racers. We’re based on community-contributed content, which means we welcome content submissions from anyone and prioritize representing all aspects of the sport of cyclocross, from the most grass-roots scene to the highest professional level of the sport.